Brazil’s Ministry of Health and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announce Strategic Alliance to Advance Innovation in Global Health

BRASÍLIA, Brazil – The Brazilian Ministry of Health today announced a strategic alliance with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to prioritize the development of solutions for pressing global health issues. This Alliance will dedicate resources to explore new ways of tackling challenges associated with vaccines, nutrition, maternal and child health, and infectious disease control.

US, Haiti launch vaccination campaigns to curb or keep out infectious diseases

Haiti, the United States and international partners are launching a nationwide vaccination campaign in the Caribbean country that seeks to curb or prevent infectious diseases. The campaign will be supported in part by the GAVI Alliance, a group of international health organizations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. In 2012, the GAVI Alliance will provide Haiti with $2.15 million for the pentavalent vaccine in Haiti. The Haitian government will contribute $177,500, which is being paid for by the CDC. GAVI also provided $100,000 to the Haitian government to train health workers.

World Health Day 2012 - good health adds life to years

The World Health Organization will be hosting a panel discussion on April 7, 2012 to mark World Health Day 2012. The topic of World Health Day in 2012 is Ageing and Health with the theme "Good health adds life to years". The panel discussion aims to address public health challenges associated with ageing populations and to provide recommendations and strategies to address them. It also intends to contribute to the deliberations of the “UN General Assembly open-ended working group on ageing”.

How to meet 111 million children in four days

Health Ministries, UN agencies and communities are uniting with tens of thousands of volunteer immunizers over four days to go door-to-door and hut to hut for a vaccination campaign against polio in 20 African countries starting on 23 March. Across West and Central Africa, over 111.1 million children below the age of five are expected to be vaccinated through this campaign.

"This year's progress in India has proven what is possible when we focus on the task at hand," he said. "In Africa, the end of polio is in sight, but we still have hard work ahead. Failure is not an option."

World TB Day message from the United Nations Secretary-General

WHO/David Rochkind

March 24th is World TB Day (#WorldTBDay). Now is the time to be even more ambitious and "Stop TB in our lifetime," the theme of this year's World TB Day.

WHO online consultation on the prevention and control of NCDs through effective partnership

The WHO has opened a web-based consultation (19 March 2012 – 9 April 2012). The aim of the consultation is to generate comments from Member States, as well as views of relevant NGOs and selected private sector, on a possible set of specific policy options and recommendations for strengthening and facilitating multisectoral action for the prevention and control of NCDs through effective partnership.

ARV given to HIV-positive children boosts preventive power of key malaria drug, study shows

An antiretroviral (ARV) drug given to HIV-positive children "can boost the preventive power of a key malaria drug," according to a study conducted in Uganda and presented last week at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, ScienceNow reports.

KENYA: Malaria drug effectiveness hit by under-dosage

Lack of adherence to the full course of Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatment is threatening the effectiveness of the drug recommended as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria in countries where the disease is endemic, according to recent studies.

Advocate for Human Rights, N.J. Rep. Payne Dies

Rep. Donald Payne, the dean of the New Jersey delegation and its first and only black member, died Tuesday at a Livingston hospital from colon cancer, his office said. He was 77 years old. He took a particular interest in foreign policy involving Africa, and at the time of his death he was the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. He sponsored legislation to help relieve famine in Darfur and championed funding for treatment of HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases abroad.

Millennium development goal on safe drinking water reaches target early

The international target to halve the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water has been met, five years before the 2015 deadline, the UN announced on Tuesday. According to the WHO, 89% of the population – 6.1 billion people – now used improved drinking water sources, 1% more than the 88% target contained in millennium development goal (MDG) number seven, set in 2000.

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